Bug 2439913 (CVE-2026-23205)

Summary: CVE-2026-23205 kernel: smb/client: fix memory leak in smb2_open_file()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A memory leak flaw was found in the Linux kernel's CIFS/SMB client. In the smb2_open_file() function, request buffers are not properly freed when performing direct I/O writes to a read-only SMB share. This causes slab cache objects to remain allocated, which can prevent the cifs module from unloading cleanly and lead to gradual memory exhaustion with repeated operations.
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-02-14 17:02:47 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

smb/client: fix memory leak in smb2_open_file()

Reproducer:

  1. server: directories are exported read-only
  2. client: mount -t cifs //${server_ip}/export /mnt
  3. client: dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/file bs=512 count=1000 oflag=direct
  4. client: umount /mnt
  5. client: sleep 1
  6. client: modprobe -r cifs

The error message is as follows:

  =============================================================================
  BUG cifs_small_rq (Not tainted): Objects remaining on __kmem_cache_shutdown()
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Object 0x00000000d47521be @offset=14336
  ...
  WARNING: mm/slub.c:1251 at __kmem_cache_shutdown+0x34e/0x440, CPU#0: modprobe/1577
  ...
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   kmem_cache_destroy+0x94/0x190
   cifs_destroy_request_bufs+0x3e/0x50 [cifs]
   cleanup_module+0x4e/0x540 [cifs]
   __se_sys_delete_module+0x278/0x400
   __x64_sys_delete_module+0x5f/0x70
   x64_sys_call+0x2299/0x2ff0
   do_syscall_64+0x89/0x350
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
  ...
  kmem_cache_destroy cifs_small_rq: Slab cache still has objects when called from cifs_destroy_request_bufs+0x3e/0x50 [cifs]
  WARNING: mm/slab_common.c:532 at kmem_cache_destroy+0x16b/0x190, CPU#0: modprobe/1577